Audi Brussels is eliminating all 371 temporary jobs

The 371 people with a temporary contract in production at Audi Brussels will lose their jobs from April 8. The socialist trade union ABVV has submitted a strike notice.

At a meeting of the works council of the Audi factory in Vorst, the unions were told that all remaining temporary workers will be said goodbye to after the Easter holidays. This concerns 371 people. About 3,000 people have permanent contracts at Audi Brussels.

The redundancy is the result of decreased demand for the large electric SUV, the Audi Q8 e-tron, management told the unions. “We knew that things were not going well and that demand for the Q8 was not as high as originally estimated, but we did not expect this: this is a cold shower,” says the representative of the socialist trade union ABVV, Franky De Schrijver. The ABVV immediately issued a strike notice, but is currently alone.

Audi Brussels will reduce its production speed by a quarter from twenty to fifteen cars per hour from April 8. As a result, significantly fewer employees are needed to operate the production line.

De Schrijver expects that the unions will be able to meet with management next week to limit the impact of the job losses as much as possible. However, he does not rule out that there will be a strike.

Until now, the disappointing demand for Audi’s large electric SUV has been met with economic unemployment. Since last week the band has been shut down for two weeks. Periods of economic unemployment were also invoked earlier this year.

According to the unions, the fact that management is now taking more structural action by terminating the contracts of temporary employees indicates that Audi does not expect demand for the Q8 e-tron to pick up quickly.

This may be due to the introduction of the Audi Q6 e-tron earlier this month. That car will appear at the dealer later this year. The new Q6 is slightly smaller than the Brussels Q8, but is cheaper, can drive further on a full battery that can be charged faster and has a significantly more modern interior. The unions expect that many current Q8 e-tron customers will switch to a Q6 e-tron.

In addition, the unions are concerned about the future of the factory. It has now been established that the site in Vorst will not build the successor to the current generation of the Q8 e-tron from 2027 onwards. If the branch is not assigned a new model, things look bleak for the Brussels car factory.